Auckland is a Cafe City

Auckland has a million cafes and they always are crowded. It's been difficult finding food that is authentically Kiwi and like Canada they don't really have their own cuisine. However, they do wonderful fresh cafe food with gourmet organic ingredients. It's difficult to choose fast food when you can find a cafe next to it with fresh sandwiches, quiches and salads.

I've gotten into the habit of photographing my meal before I eat it. Today an elderly couple stopped me at lunch and asked if I was writing for a magazine - which is peculiar because I doubt a magazine would write about a food court lunch. However, when I explained I was travelling they told me they did the same thing when they were in France.

They also take their coffee seriously and think that Starbucks is terrible, cheap coffee. Imagine that. I'll try to get a picture of the next flat white I get, which I believe is a frothed regular coffee. But everyone has an espresso machine, even McDonalds and I don't think they would dare just pour the coffee straight from a jug like we do in Canada.

One of my first lunches with Kelley near her office, smoked turkey with pesto and brie.

Jacob and I tried the local artisan beer while in Rotorua and it was pretty good.

We went to the waterfront and I had mixed grilled seafood that came out on this hot stone and continued to grill.

Vegetarian lasagna that I was photographing today when the couple stopped me.

This is the most interesting thing I've eaten so far, raw fish marinated in coconut milk with fresh vegetables. Jacob brought it from his cafeteria and I've also had it elsewhere. I've been trying to find the recipe but everyone just calls it raw fish.